CHESHIRE’S new police chief has reassured residents that he has no plans to privatise the police force.

John Dwyer, police and crime commissioner, has had more than 200 emails from residents urging him against such a move.

He said: “I will be responding to all the people who emailed me individually but I want to make it clear that I am not a fan of privatisation, in fact, I am a big fan of collaboration.

“I have spent my first two weeks in office meeting many partners in local authorities to talk about developing opportunities to collaborate across support or ‘back office’ functions.

“I believe we can do things better ourselves if we get our processes right and that we should make the best use of what we have got before we look elsewhere.

“I will not consider the privatisation of frontline policing.”